The Benefits of Using Volunteer Management Software
The following is a guest post from WonderWe, a free online platform specialized in nonprofit, individual, and faith-based fundraising projects.
What is Volunteer Management?
Volunteer management involves creating a systematic plan for recruitment, training, engaging, and coordinating volunteers. In other words, it concerns volunteer management in a Nonprofit Organization and the job responsibilities they perform. Bringing a proper volunteer management strategy into the picture can obviously help an organization to speed up the operational progress, thereby achieving the desired objectives.
Besides recruiting and training volunteers, every organization should plan strategies on how to supervise an event, define the volunteers’ responsibilities, and think about how to motivate them for the successful continuation of their duties. Because of the diversity of NPOs, the policies that come up might vary from one to another organization.
However, to lay a plan on volunteer management, the organization has to concentrate and come up with the best strategies that, in turn, help the volunteers complete their tasks while also helping to accomplish the complete objectives of the organization.
Volunteer Management Software
Using volunteer management software will help to perform the complete process of planning, recruiting, and training of volunteers in one single platform. The software makes it quite simple to manage an event or activity coordinating from the start to end, making the most of every volunteer experience. Also, look for options like virtual event customization, volunteering for self-signing, organizing a calendar for volunteer database updates, and much more.
6 Key Benefits of Using Volunteer Management Software
There are various benefits of using volunteering management software. Let us dig deeper into a few of them.
- Free Up Time
- Easy Accessibility
- Powerful Connections
- Simplified Administration
- Communication Hub
- Online Background Checks
1. Free Up Time
Time management is the biggest challenge for NPOs nowadays because they have many tasks to delegate and less time to invest. Deploying volunteer management software can allow the organization to free-up the time through automated scheduling processes. Also, 64% of nonprofit CFO’s have said that adopting the newer cloud technology methods would cut operational costs about 20%.
2. Easy Accessibility
Using such applications, NPOs can schedule a solution to promote opportunities, recruit volunteers, access the data instantly, run reports, and perform many more tasks from anywhere just with a network connection. This flexibility in access and functions can benefit nonprofits that already spend valuable time completing these tasks manually.
Besides, you can also analyze the traffic by using the available tools in the market when there is a considerable increase compared to the manual reports. Analyzing the traffic and redirections to the application or website can help understand the particular interest of volunteers and come up with such ideas, including in the application.
3. Powerful Connections
Today’s workforce is full of employees for volunteer opportunities. So, the employees expect employers to provide volunteering opportunities and giving programs at the workplace. Many NPOs also realize that uniting like-minded businesses can raise much-needed support. The all-inclusive volunteer management software offers the NPOs an ability to connect with the corporations providing a bunch of volunteer opportunities to excite employees.
4. Simplified Administration
Embedding volunteer data in a CRM software or application helps assign tasks to the people that the organizers need most. Volunteer management software or applications in turn save your workforce valuable time by empowering employees and volunteers to wear fewer hats, making a greater effect!
Integrating volunteer management is a solution if you have an organization and looking to recruit, retain, and unify your volunteers. Some of the tools such as donor and volunteer management help NPOs and charities organize their valuable volunteer data, providing engaging volunteer opportunities that keep your supporters to come back for more!
5. Communication Hub
Diverse-channel communication with volunteers and coordinators is essential to maintain immediate and real connections with volunteers. A kind of CRM software is an exceedingly useful tool for any of the coordinators to send emails or text messages, or even a push notification to community partners and volunteers directly, without to use a separate tool or to build a tedious mail list for this. You can apply the filter based on the interests, availability, skills, and more, and can push the emails in one single shot.
Since the database stores all the email addresses and essential profile information at the time of registration, you can establish a communication with a wide range of volunteers promptly in a hassle-free manner.
6. Online Background Checks
The majority of the volunteering organizations take the preliminary steps to reduce risks. Besides, the background check is an essential element to create a safer environment while volunteering. Always select the volunteer management tool that offers simple integration with a quality background screening organization. The breadth and depth of the volunteer background checks vary greatly, and it is crucial to find a reputable provider.
You can work more efficiently by integrating background checks into the volunteer management software and be productive while offering a better experience for your volunteers. This can be achieved by following a process like when a volunteer is going to register for an opportunity using volunteer management software; they should be redirected to complete a background check by making them fill the details required for the verification. Then, these checks are attached to each volunteer’s profile, for easy viewing and managing them by the volunteers.
There are various clear-cut benefits of using volunteer management software. NPOs can utilize these tools for improving volunteer relationships, freeing up the coordination time of volunteers, optimizing the internal organizational process, and many more. Volunteer management software can help you better manage your supporters and reach your engagement goals.